E-Clips:- Business Pictorial - Anti-Graft Body Clears Murungi

The Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission has formally cleared Energy minister Kiraitu Murungi of any wrong-doing in the multi-billion-shilling Anglo Leasing scandal.

The KACC, which is headed by retired judge Aaron Ringera, has published the minister’s clearance in the Kenya Gazette.

In the same issue, Mr Justice Ringera also cleared Cooperatives minister Njeru Ndwiga and Nyeri Town MP P. G. Mureithi of allegations they influenced the director of the Coffee Board of Kenya to award a tender for insurance services to companies in which they had interest.

Mr Justice Ringera says an inquiry into the allegations by former anti-graft czar John Githongo that Mr Murungi had interfered with investigations into alleged procurement irregularities in two contracts awarded to Anglo Leasing had found no such evidence.

KACC officers, he adds, had concluded that Mr Githongo “was not an investigator as defined by law for there to exist an offence of interferance with investigations. The investigators involved in the matter have denied any kind of interference.”

He also says the tape recorded conversation which formed the basis of the allegations was “largely unintelligible,” and that the audible parts depict a conversation in short terse statements whose “literal meaning would be a matter of conjecture.”

Another ground for clearing Mr Murungi was failure by Mr Githongo to record a statement that would be used for prosecution. “There is no evidence that would lay a proper basis for the playback and production tape recorded evidence in court as required,” Mr Justice Ringera says. He also says the lawyer alleged to have given the file of Mr Joseph Githongo (John Githongo’s father) to Mr Murungi had denied doing so.

“The investigation did not establish commission of any offence. The file was forwarded to the Attorney General on November 6, 2006 for closure. The recommendation was accepted by the AG on January 15, 2007,” he says.

Mr Githongo had claimed in a BBC interview last year that he had told President Kibaki about the corruption, but he failed to act. He had further claimed he made the tape secretly during a meeting with Mr Murungi, who was then Justice minister.

On the tape, a man Mr Githongo said was the minister was heard telling him that “the loan (by his father) is owed to a businessman with links to powerful politicians” and that if he goes slow on his investigation the businessman will do likewise.

“The minister of justice was telling me that if I eased off my inquiries then my father’s loan matter would be made to go away,” Mr Githongo had said.